When a blog has gotten established and has a core of readers, one thing that you might consider doing is rewarding your readers. How and why would I do this you might say?

Giving your readers something back in the form of a prize can have lots of effects that you may not think. Take for example Darren Rowse, The man behind the famous Problogger.net. He has given away a load of prizes over this past week for the anniversary of his blog. Fortunately I was a winner and this makes me feel pretty darn good, however it also has helped me to appreciate the effect of giving prizes on a blog to your readers.

The ultimate goal for you as a blogger should be to make an impact on a personal level with your readers. You not only want to just write some piece of information on a post and write to an audience, but you want to think about writing to individuals. The prizes one might give are just a reinforcement that you appreciate their readership and also, have you thought about what these people tell their friends when they win? Bingo! Word of mouth travels and causes more people to read what you have to offer as well.

So as you can see several positive things for you and your readers come from giving away prizes. But you may be saying to yourself, I don’t have any money to give anything away because I don’t make much off my blog to begin with. Ok thats fine. Do you know people that would give something as a sponsor of your site? Could you give a free advertisement on your blog for a period of time as a prize? Could you offer a service that you have skill with on the internet as a prize?

As you can see, there are many ways you can go about this in a cost effective way it doesn’t have to eat up your wallet. Be creative and don’t give what you can’t. If you need some ideas you can ask me or just read Problogger and you will find some things that will help.